Gold and silver appear to be consolidating after their recent gains. Gold fell $7.10 or 0.41% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,741.30. Silver slipped to a low of $33.92 and finished with a loss of 0.23%.

Gold remains unchanged on Wednesday and is likely being supported by the realisation that the Greek bailout deal may not be the success it was hailed to be, and also the time is running out for negotiations on the US fiscal cliff.

Gold prices will rise in 2013 Citi has said and gold remains one of their favoured commodities.

Despite some investors turning less bullish on gold, Citi continues to be bullish on gold in 2013. President Obama's victory was expected to be positive for gold since it would benefit from "a continuation of dovish monetary policy". Gold prices have also been supported by central bank gold purchases. Moreover muted gold demand in India is expected to have picked up during Diwali.

The yellow metal’s appeal is still strong as evidenced by recent investments by Soros, Paulson and other respected hedge fund managers. This buying and buying by other institutions such as PIMCO has led to continuing growth in holdings of the SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, which hit a record high of 1,345.813 tonnes on November 27th.

Global gold ETP holdings have climbed to a record for an eighth straight session showing robust demand for gold. The amount in exchange-traded products backed by the metal rose 0.2% to 2,612.1 metric tons, data tracked by Bloomberg showed.

In its weekly note on technicals, Commerzbank said gold is supported by a short-term uptrend at $1,735. "We will retain our bullish view while the current November low at $1,672.50 underpins," it said in its note picked up by Thomson Reuters.

"Support above this level can be seen at $1,739.09/$1,737.17 (9 November high and late September low) as well as around the mid-November $1,705.66 low and around the minor psychological $1,700 mark. Only if unexpectedly fallen through, would our short term bullish view be neutralised."

Currency wars are set to intensify as the US Senate is considering new sanctions against Iran that would prevent Iran getting paid for its natural resource exports in gold bullion.

The new sanctions aimed at reducing global trade with Iran in the energy, shipping and precious metals sectors may soon be considered by the U.S. Senate as part of an annual defense policy bill, senators and aides said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

The sanctions would end "Turkey's game of gold for natural gas," Reuters reported a senior Senate aide as saying, referring to reports that Turkey has been paying for natural gas with gold due to sanctions rules.

The legislation "would bring economic sanctions on Iran near de facto trade embargo levels with the hope of speeding up the date by which Iran's economy will collapse," the aide said.

Last week Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has revealed a critical detail about a widely discussed Turkey-Iran gold trade boom, disclosing that the Islamic republic was exporting gas to Turkey in exchange for payment in gold bullion.

It is also reported that Iranians are buying Turkish gold with the Turkish Lira, which is deposited into their bank accounts in exchange for Turkey’s natural gas purchases, the deputy prime minister said at midnight Nov. 22 during a parliamentary session.

Iran cannot transfer monetary payments to Iran in U.S. dollars due to U.S sanctions against the country’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

Iran has been forced to shun the international financial system and the petrodollar as means of payment and turn to the international gold market to ensure it gets paid for its natural resources in order to prevent absolute economic collapse.

The law of unintended consequences may apply here and should the Iranian currency and economy collapse there is likely to be a war with Israel and turbulence in the Middle East akin to, if not worse, than that seen in the 1970’s.

NEWSWIRE(Bloomberg) -- IShares Silver Trust Holdings Unchanged at 9,818 Metric Tons Silver holdings in the IShares Silver Trust, the biggest exchange-traded fund backed by silver, were unchanged at 9,818.07 metric tons as of Nov. 27, according to figures on the company’s website.

But but but...gold is just a tradition. Next theyll ban Santa Claus. And Americans wouldn't put up with that shit. But banning gold, well, we've done that before. Thank you FDR, you asshole. I hope you get polio or something.

You can now wait in Singapore forever for a plane ride back to the US. Other news on Singapore/US relations are just as weird. It's been cutting one string at a time over the last three weeks. Like a slow moving embargo.

It's not the only country either. Past three weeks lots of nations have been slowly isolating the USA and containing it in the strangest ways.

They are a joke. Everyone knows the writing is on the wall for USD. South Korea, India, China...shit all of Asia is doing gold for oil with Iran. Even England is doing gold/oil swaps. Iran shoudl be on the look out for counter fiet gold though if recieving from any nation using the Fort Knox or the Bank of England (Carney is so fucked).

First bogus bar that shows up from a country is the first country to miss it's energy targets and go dark the same week.

hmm, that makes me think : if the dollar fiat collapses, i.e. hyperinflation, other fiats may still survive. if the usa wants to drag the whole world down with itself, it has to cause trouble and start wars all over the world.

Standard COMEX games. slam the price down to dissuade those holding buy contracts and more MOPE to make fiat look better

But China buys the dips and TAKES deliver - remelting into 1 kilo bars - makes sure it's all gold AND also converts to preferred Asian form (this has the side effect of permanently removing it from the London market which requires 400 oz bars). The west is hemmoraghing gold in a futile effort to keep western fiat looking good in comparison.

That may be a great thesis Orly and I am open to it, but that does not explain a $20 plus decline in 1 second. You seem to be a great big picture thinker. If you are trying to rationalize what just happened and are trying to explain it away that does not fly. Sorry.

If the dow drops 300 pts in the next 2 seconds and I tell you that is because we put the highs in for the dow in 2008 does that make sense?

I think Turd came out with a study on some recent past drops that had unknown traders doing a coordinated dumping of something like 1/3 of a years production in 10 minutes or so. I'm not aware of any trading strategy that calls for dumping trades like that in an effort to get the absolute worst price for your gold.

A poster on another thread pointed out that options expiry is Friday and they need gold down to bring the calls out of the money. Just the usual shit that the bankers pull with the acquiessence of Bart Chilton and the CFTC. It works until it doesn't. One of these days the COMEX will find everyone standing for their gold regardless of how badly they beat down the price prior to expiry.

I am not trying to rationalise anything, nor am I trying to "explain it away."

I am saying:

The move was in paper, which will affect the price of "phyzz."

The market is so thin as to be easily manipulated. Much more so than say, the Euro. This would imply that once they say it's over and you're on the toilet, you're toast.

It was a 1.1% move. That's not huge but it is certainly concerning because it was done so easily...and because, last but not least:

You seem quite upset by the fact that the rug can be taken out from under you on a whim. Maybe next time, for good. My advice would be that if those moves upset you so, then you should get out now while the getting is good and sleep much better at night.

Believe me, I am not trying to justify anything, nor am I trying to tell you what to do. It is just unsettling to see you upset after all you've been through so far this year alone.

The charts don't lie: gold will fade down from here. There's not going to be any apocalypse, despite the fact that a lot of guys on this board would like nothing more than to play Mad Max with their guns, gold and ground theories. They don't realise that if that scenario were to unfold, the last thing you're going to need is a heavy hunk of metal that people would kill to steal.

Okay, man. I've said my peace. You know where I stand, so I'll leave it at that and say simply good luck to you all!

I admit it still chaps my ass to see a market that I full well know is manipulated....get manipulated. That is on me. But that is all it was, manipulation. I am not even denying your point about what your chart tells you. Gold may in fact be heading down right now. But that particular move this am was nothing but manipulation. If gold was a risk trade then why is it still down 30 bucks as the rest of the market just erased all it's losses? This move today reeks of something.

I know full well you are not a gold bug. Neither am I. I do think that the plan is to kill the dollar. Maybe not armageddon, but they are going to inflate our way out and it's going to hurt. So when you say that I should get out so I sleep at night, you are saying I should get back into the dollar. I struggle with doing that. I have a bit of both. But I hear you.

What is interesting to me is how you freely admit that there is manipulation taking place and yet still would rely on a chart. If there are bigger forces at work which we seem to both admit, it kind of renders the chart somewher less useful.

I also agree with you about there being no apocalypse. I think this is just flat out financial repression, and it will go on and on. People will go broke one at a time.

Either way I was not trying to pick a fight or just bitch and moan. That move this morning was undeniable though, it was not fundamentals at all.

Because gold at these levels is a threat to the criminal financial cartel that now controls many governments and most markets around the globe, and they are so frightened that they no longer care if their actions are dead obvious.

Their blatantly criminal worldwide fiat currency and central banking system is so nearly nonfunctional that they can no longer afford subtlety, depending instead on their control of the media, including the use of paid shills (and unpaid fools) on boards like these, in hopes of confusing the issue for a little longer.

Dead on. All criminals behave this way as they get cornered. Still the bigger criminal is the government. We expect this from bankers. The government has let itself get taken over. This is not a burglary, it's a conspiracy

Exactly, the cartel has been doing its best to help the gold bugs load up as long as possible until it's definitely late. One should send them a buck instead of complaining.

Keep in mind that as long as the price is artificially suppressed gold cannot enter a bubble phase and the upward drift is therefore guaranteed. Whatever the cartel is doing is, in the end, positive for gold. Gold (and silver) is an outstanding asset when viewed from any aspect; that's perhaps because it's not an asset at all but sound money.

To be a gold bug is a thrilling adventure. One is demonstrably cut off from sheeple pursuing its own way towards individual liberty. Gold materializes the effort of gradual development of self-esteem, discipline, patience, independence and responsibility. One has to resist the panic when things go temporarily wrong and to bear the consequences practically alone on one side as well as to keep calm when things go excessively well on the other side, which helps build up stronger and balanced personality. Going against the herd mentality requires relying on one's own knowledge, thinking and experiments that is somewhat comparable to pioneer exploration of a new land with all associated dangers and pitfalls one can possibly come across. Gold is much more than just piling up more wealth. I see it a way of transforming manipulable and dependent herd mentality into valuable mature personality.

Under international law/treaties, economic sanctions that deny access to international funds transfer mechanisms are defined as an "act of war."

(I don't remember where I'd read/researched that but it was from a recognized, proper legal source. Is a fact. Real fact as in truth, not conspiracy fact. Sorry, I do not have the citation handy nor am I going to dig about for it...)